Abbas to meet Kerry Sunday on peace talks

RAMALLAH, April 3 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is set to hold a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday to discuss ways to resume Palestinian-Israeli peace talks, a Palestinian official said Wednesday.

The negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel came to a halt in 2010 over Israeli settlement construction.

The meeting is likely to be held in the Jordanian capital Amman, said Nemer Hammad, Abbas's political adviser.

"We are ready to return to the negotiating table on the basis of the peace process' obligations," Hammad told Xinhua.

Hammad said that Israel should stop building Jewish settlements, recognize the two-state solution and release old prisoners to revive the peace talks.

For its part, Israel Radio reported that Kerry will arrive in Israel on Saturday for the second time in a month following his visit with U.S. President Barack Obama two weeks ago.

On Tuesday, Kerry held separate talks with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone and discussed measures to restore confidence between the two sides.

In the meantime, a well-placed source told Xinhua that Kerry has not given Abbas any guarantee that Israel will stop the construction of settlement and abide by the pre-1967 border lines before resuming the negotiations.

The source added that the Obama administration is pushing for a meeting between Abbas and Netanyahu to resume direct negotiations after Israel makes goodwill gestures, which include releasing some prisoners and reducing the number of checkpoints in the West Bank.